VARIETIES AND AGE OF THE PUPA.
Although we are anxious not to attach too much importance to mere names in this little work, and rather to keep the reader's attention fixed upon the really essential truths of the "Life of an Insect," it is expedient that we should mention that while all pupæ may be divided into the two classes, active and inactive, yet there are several very striking variations in them, which are more remarkable than those of larvæ. These it is proper here to mention, in order that the reader may be spared the perplexity which would otherwise ensue, were he to imagine that all inactive, or all active pupæ, were pretty much alike. Let it never, however, be forgotten, that it is no matter what the variation in form may be, nor does it matter whether the insect is active or inactive, while in this state of passage from the larva to the perfect form, it is always neither more nor less than a pupa. Through this stage all perfect insects pass, although they may put on various forms and aspects while they are in it, and may possess various, and, perhaps, very opposite faculties during its continuance. If this important fact is borne in mind, there will be no risk of being misled by the confusion of sounds and names, which some have been pleased to encumber insect history with.
In order to form a clear conception of these variations, reference may be made to the engraving on the next page, in which we have caused to be represented the five different kinds of pupæ, as they were named and classified by Linnæus. This plate will sufficiently manifest the necessity of an explanation upon the subject of the variations of pupæ; for few persons in examining it would form the remotest idea, that all the insects there represented are really and truly in the pupa state. Some look so like the perfect insect, that it would be almost impossible for any one only slightly acquainted with insect history to believe them to be in what is in reality a transition stage from the larva to the perfect form.
Various forms of Pupæ.
I. The insect, No. 1, is a pupa called the Complete, because it is active, and has many of the parts of the perfect insect. The pupa of the spider is an instance.
II. The insect, No. 2, is a pupa called the Half-complete, or semi-complete. It is also active, resembles the perfect insect, but has only the rudiments of wings. The grasshopper is an instance of this kind of pupa.
III. The insect, No. 3, is a pupa called the Incomplete. It is inactive, but possesses rudiments of legs and wings. The common wasp is represented as an example of this kind.